The results these firms found differ slightly, but also share common trends that can tell us a few important things about how many small and medium-sized businesses will prioritize their growth in the next few months. While placing in different orders within each of these studies, both firms found their top three challenges to relate to budgetary and cost restrictions, maintaining the operations of their existing solutions, and securing their workforce against threats (although one of the data sets indicated that this concern was more focused on mobile security measures). If we take the liberty of drawing a few inferences from this apparent focus on these concerns, we can see that SMBs have a pretty universal set of priorities that will require somewhat similar solutions. First, many business owners who have had to review their company finances and prioritize their expenses to reflect their goals will probably be able to confirm that it can be a considerable task. The challenges that an SMB faces are therefore largely focused on getting the most return for their investments while attempting to reduce the total amount of capital spent. These financial challenges, however, can be faced much more easily with the help of a managed service provider. Without an MSP in their corner, companies had a tendency to provide a minimum budget for their IT solutions in the hopes that nothing unexpected would pop up, only to have to sacrifice what little budget they had when some issue did pop up. Alternatively, an MSP offers its services as a consistent, budgetable expense. This allows a company to predict their probable IT spending and plan a budget around a more consistent balance. An MSP’s services can also apply quite easily to the other major concerns that the aforementioned studies identified as considerable. Through their proactive services, managed service providers can more effectively ensure that the solutions that a company has in place remain operational and enhance their productivity. This is accomplished by monitoring their solutions in order to catch looming issues as quickly as possible, often before they have an effect on the company’s systems. The same can be said of the security a company has put in place, part of the MSP’s responsibilities are to ensure that security solutions are maintained to be as effective as possible. Remember, these are just the three top anticipated challenges. Many of the other technology challenges that are anticipated to influence companies during 2017 can also be mitigated through an MSP’s services. To learn a few more ways that an MSP can ensure that your IT is more of a benefit to your business than it is a challenge, give us a call at (603) 889-0800.

Managed IT services allow your business to function without worrying about the status of your IT. This includes email and any services related to it. We’ll discuss three ways that our managed email solution is the best fit for your organization. Reinforce Security with Spam BlockingSome of the Internet’s most dangerous threats find their way into infrastructures through spam and targeted phishing attacks. While you might know enough not to click on random links or download attachments that you receive via email, your users might not. All it takes is one mistake to bring down a network, so it’s best to keep threats out of your infrastructure in the first place. This is where enterprise-level spam blocking comes into play. With a powerful enough solution, your organization can keep dangerous messages out of your inbox in the first place. Hosting and Management for Hands-Off EmailWhen you’re the one responsible for adding new users and ensuring that your email servers are working as intended, you might find it distracts you from your real objective–running your business. In reality, nothing is more important than ensuring operations are going off without a hitch. With White Mountain IT Services managing your email solution to ensure uptime and optimal mail flow, your organization can focus on what it does best without being distracted by the troubles of technology management. Archive Your Emails for Later ViewingEmail archiving can be valuable for a number of purposes. For one, it helps to have a record of any incoming and outgoing messages sent by your organization for the purposes of preserving important information. Furthermore, it helps to know who sends messages to others within your organization. For example, if you have a former employee who has recently left your organization, the emails could become an opportunity to check what their reasons were. This helps you prevent turnover in the future. Email management is not something to be ignored, but it’s also something best left to professionals. You won’t regret leaving your email hosting and management in the hands of White Mountain IT Services. We assure you that we’ll do everything in our power to ensure your email solution is taken care of. To learn more, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.

Misconception 1: The Cloud Isn?t SecureIt?s understandable why business owners are hesitant to store their sensitive data in the cloud. After all, stories of hacks against major corporations appear in the headlines all too often. Although, it?s important to keep in mind that these sensational stories don?t accurately reflect the state of cloud security today. In fact, studies show that in some instances, the cloud is actually more secure than storing one?s data on-premise. This proved to be the case in a study by Schneider Electric where 40 percent of participants were found to be hosting their security applications in the cloud, and 45 percent of participants said they are likely to move their security application to a cloud platform. That said, you should still exercise caution when selecting a cloud platform to host your company?s data. It?s prudent to perform your own analysis of costs, opportunity, and risk, as well as to be wary of exaggerated security claims by cloud providers. One way to go about this is to check with vendors for references. They will be able to tell you what cloud providers are reliable, and which ones tend to overpromise. Misconception 2: The Cloud Costs Too Much In the past, a move to the cloud may have been perceived by budget-minded business owners as too major of an expense to commit to. Today, the cloud computing market has become so varied that you?ll end up with several different estimates when you shop around with different cloud providers. Therefore, it?s worth it to be diligent when shopping for a cloud provider. Then there are the cost benefits you should consider that extend beyond the initial price tag of cloud migration and the subsequent monthly fees. This includes opportunity costs such as time to market, disaster recovery savings, and customer satisfaction. Also, a business owner shouldn?t overlook finally being able to avoid paying for on-premise maintenance, remediation, hardware costs, application upgrades, and the list goes on. Misconception 3: The Cloud Doesn?t Offer Enough FlexibilityIf you?re hosting your data and applications in-house, then you know firsthand what it takes to make a modification like an enhancement to your hardware or software. Often times, such an IT initiative will be expensive and take considerable time to implement. Now imagine needing to make the same performance enhancement to an infrastructure that?s hosted in the cloud. With the cloud, when you need more computing resources from your provider, it?s as easy as making a phone call or submitting a ticket. The time and money saved by simply requesting your cloud provider make the adjustments on their end will free up resources for you and your IT staff that can be better invested elsewhere. Do you still have reservations about the cloud? If so, then you owe it to yourself, and your bottom line, to discuss these roadblocks with the IT professionals at White Mountain IT Services. You may be surprised to learn that the cloud can do exactly what you need it to do and more. To have a conversation about the cloud, call us today at (603) 889-0800.

Not only does the email look convincing, it’s also often coming from a contact you already know. Even worse, the link takes you to a Google.com URL with a legitimate-looking login screen. However, once you log in with your Google credentials, whoever is behind the attack will have full access to your account. Once it has them, it sends the same email to your contact list in an attempt to propagate itself. This attack is well-crafted, to the point where the easiest way to catch it before getting snared is to click the small link on the page that Google hosts to check the developer’s information. Since the attack utilizes legitimate Google account functions, however, who would think to check? Whenever you get an unsolicited email with links or attachments, it’s critical to think before you click! Fortunately, Google was able to apparently put the kibosh on this attack within an hour of taking action, but there’s still no indication of who was responsible for this attack or if/when they will strike again. Therefore, it is important to understand how to avoid falling victim to emails like this in general. First, if there’s ever any doubt of an email’s validity, check out some of the indicators that tend to go overlooked. This attack in particular had some oddities–for example, the email was addressed to “ hh************@ma********.com .” Secondly, if an email is unexpected, it never hurts to confirm its validity with the sender through an alternate method of communication. To protect your business, you need to be sure that your staff understands that threats like this could be a major problem. In the meantime, be sure to keep your eyes out for more email-based phishing scams and other threats. If you do come across questionable messages, don’t hesitate to report it immediately, so that everyone on your team becomes cognizant of the threat. For more information about phishing scams, social engineering tactics, and other attempts to infiltrate your network, contact the IT professionals at White Mountain IT Services at (603) 889-0800 today.

Keep in mind that this requires that you have the official Netflix mobile app installed. You can?t just use the web browser on your device to download the videos. Furthermore, not every single video you find will be available for download, but there is still quite a large library to choose from. Your first step is to download the app. To see the videos that are available for download, you just tap or click the button in the top-left side of the screen and select Available for Download. For your selected videos, a down arrow will appear with the word Download next to it. Any downloaded videos you have can be found in the Netflix app. Just click the menu and select My Downloads. This will show you all of the details that you need to know, such as how large they are. This is especially important to preserve space on your devices, as you never know what you?ll need to do with it while you?re on a trip. Now let?s say that you need to delete a video from your downloads. To do this, just select the show and click the Downloaded button. You will then be shown a window that allows you to Delete Download. Once you?ve done this, just select the videos that you want to delete by checking the boxes in the right-hand corners. Once you?ve done this, just click the trash can and you?ll delete any of your selected videos. How do you plan on using Netflix?s download feature? Are there any other situations where you might find this useful? Let us know in the comments, and be sure to subscribe for more helpful technology tips and tricks.